Wednesday, April 02, 2014

No accountability

James R. Clapper, the US Director of National Intelligence,
admitted in a letter made public Tuesday that the National Security
Agency (NSA) conducts searches for the personal information of Americans
among the vast numbers of call and email records it collects.

“There
have been queries, using U.S. person identifiers, of communications
lawfully acquired to obtain foreign intelligence by targeting non U.S.
persons reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S. pursuant to
Section 702 of FISA,” wrote Clapper.

Since the NSA claims the
right to collect the communications of people within multiple “hops,” or
degrees of separation, from a foreign individual targeted for
surveillance, the number of US citizens whose communications are being
recorded is potentially vast.

Previously, the NSA and White House
have insisted that the intelligence agencies merely store, but do not
run searches against, these communications. But Clapper’s admission is a
clear statement that the NSA, as a matter of procedure, not only
collects, but views and monitors the correspondence of US citizens.

And in all the subsequent scandals we've heard Shinseki do the
Accountability Comedy Routine. That's when a government official says,
"I take accountability." They say that -- and here's the joke -- then
they don't resign and they're not fired. "I take accountability" really
just means, "I'm bored, let's move on."

Tuesday, April 1, 2014. Chaos and violence continue, more civilians in
Falluja are killed by Nouri al-Malki with weapons Barack Obama provides
him with, death tolls are out for the month of March, faux death polls
are out as well for those who prefer to avoid reality and lie, Quil
Lawrence Day is celebrated by many faux journalists, we look at
censorship, film, 'honor' killings and much more.

How was your Quil Lawrence Day? Quil is the NPR 'reporter' who played
Americans for fools in 2010. We'll be dealing with him this month.

But to celebrate this important day for 'reporters' around the world,
Kim Segupta decided to write a column and see how many lies he could get
away with. Kim, for those who don't know, writes for the British
newspaper The Independent. In the early '00s, it was known for Robert
Fisk. It's had little of note since. It's had Patrick Cockburn
'reporting' on a woman being hanged in Iraq when she was actually stoned
to death. They changed it after receiving non-stop ridicule but,
because they're 'reporters' and not reporters, they didn't feel the need
to tag on a correction notice. Kim was a basic 'reporter' who
basically rewrote AP articles. He covered Iraq for years and never had
a scoop, never broke news. But, if you want to be honest, the
so-called Independent didn't take a hard stand against the Iraq War.

No, they helped sell it too.

And now they want to sell more war. Which is why Kim emerges from under his rock today to write:The issue of reporting Syria came up two weeks ago when a Russian
journalist decided to join me and two colleagues, both Western
correspondents based in Moscow. The journalist complained about the
Western media’s coverage of Ukraine and gave Syria as another example of
biased reporting. It was unfortunate for the Russian that he worked for
the state-owned Russia Today which had journalists resigning on air at
the time to protest against the Kremlin’s actions in Crimea.

That's cute, Kim. It's not factual, but it's cute. And on Quil
Lawrence Day, 'reporters' like you especially don't feel the need to be
honest.

Journalists resigned on air from RT?

Journalists, Kim?

He probably shouldn't write about things she doesn't understand -- like journalism.

One person resigned. Liz Wahl -- Fake Ass Liz Wahl. Read Max Blumenthal and Rania Khalek's "How Cold War-Hungry Neocons Stage Managed RT Anchor Liz Wahl's Resignation" (Truth Dig). Here's Wikipedia on Wahl:On March 5, 2014, RT anchor Liz Wahl,
of the network's Washington, DC, bureau, resigned on air, blaming RT
for propaganda. She explained later "that she felt challenged being the
daughter of a U.S. military veteran and being the partner of a physician
who works at a U.S. military base, and that is why, personally, she
cannot be part of a network funded by the Russian government that
whitewashes the actions of Putin". Wahl claimed that what 'broke' her
was that RT censored a question from her interview with Ron Paul about "Russia's intervention
in Ukraine". Ron Paul later asserted that he was not censored in any
way and that his message was delivered in full and to his satisfaction.[171]
Furthermore, the sentence Wahl accused RT of cutting out, supposedly
containing the term "intervention", actually contained the term
"invasion" and it was in fact televised in full.[172]
In response, RT released a statement: "When a journalist disagrees with
the editorial position of his or her organization, the usual course of
action is to address those grievances with the editor, and, if they
cannot be resolved, to quit like a professional. But when someone makes a
big public show of a personal decision, it is nothing more than a
self-promotional stunt. We wish Liz the best of luck on her chosen
path".[173]

Poor Fake Ass Liz. I'm still confused about her recent public claims to
be Asian. Did she already burn through all the p.r. potential from 'my
grandparents were Hungarian immigrants'?

Who knows?

But how did Liz Wahl become "journalists"? Oh, that's right,
'reporters' like Kim Segupta lie and lie some more. Why be bound by the
facts when you can really smear if you take one and make it plural.
Quil Lawrence is thrilled that Kim Sengupta emulated him on this
special day.

Some of you may be too young to remember 2002, the year before the Iraq
War started, when tens of thousands of Americans were being killed in
Iraq. Not a week went by without a bombing or shooting claiming the
life on American citizen. Bully Boy Bush explained that to protect
Americans the US needed to invade Iraq. And invade the US did and, at
last, success is at hand, finally the brutal killings of Americans has
ceased in Iraq for at least one month.

What's that?

No Americans were killed in Iraq in 2002? Bully Boy Bush said Iraq was being invaded to liberate it from "a brutal dictator"?

Well why is Mark Thompson writing his nonsense?

Oh, that's right. It's the first of the month, we have the death tolls today.

And what better way to ignore the Iraqi dead (and the failure of the
Iraq War) than to whore out some stupid ass story about "no US troops
killed!"

Baghdad, 1 April 2014 – According to casualty figures released
today by UNAMI, a total of 592 Iraqis were killed and another 1,234 were
injured in acts of terrorism and violence in March*.

The number of civilians killed was 484 (including 133 civilian
police), while the number of civilians injured was 1,104 (including 206
civilian police). A further 108 members of the Iraqi Security Forces
were killed, and 130 were injured (not including casualties from Anbar
operation).“With Elections Day getting nearer, I once again stress the need for
unity and a holistic approach to violence and terrorist threat in Iraq.
The political, social and religious leaders of Iraq have an urgent
responsibility to set up a mechanism for dialogue and conflict
resolution between various stakeholders”, the Special Representative of
the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG), Mr. Nickolay
Mladenov said.*CAVEATS: Data do not take into account casualties of the current IA
operation in Anbar, for which we report at the bottom the figures
received by our sources.Civilian Casualties (killed and injured) per governorateAnbar excluded, Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate with 657
civilian casualties (180 killed, 477 injured), followed by Salahuddine
(95 killed, 205 injured), Babel (63 killed, 175 injured), Ninewa (67
killed, 83 injured), and Diyala (48 killed, 64 injured not including
Buhriz operation).

Operations in AnbarAccording to information obtained by UNAMI from the Health
Directorate in Anbar, the total civilian casualties in Anbar up to 30
March were 156 killed and 741 injured, with 80 killed and 448 injured in
Ramadi and 76 killed and 293 injured in Fallujah.

Another month has come to an end, leaving a staggering number of people dead across Iraq. Antiwar.com figures show 1,886 killed and 2,186 wounded nationwide, with 1,063 of the dead civilians or security members, and 823 militants.

Why the differences?

For one thing, UNAMI is excluding Anbar. To a degree, so is Iraq Body
Count. IBC is not counting 'terrorists' killed. (A) A death is a death
and (B) who gets to define?

I don't just mean that from a philosophical stand point -- although
there is that. I mean how many times has the US government, for
example, insisted a 'terrorist' was killed only to learn that it was a
child or an innocent civilian?

A death is a death. If you're tracking deaths, that's what you track.

If you want to know how many people died in Iraq in a given period, you need be counting all deaths.

IBC deserves much praise for sticking with Iraq when so many others walked away. But that's the reason for the differences.

Oh, look, it's little Scotty Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor, still huffing his own boy smell. People think I'm too hard on the Christian Science Monitor. Go check little Scotty's Twitter feed.
He's all over the map today, covering anywhere the US government wants
to start a war. And he includes the Tweet above. But Iraq? He has no
time for that. He doesn't even note one count, one death toll. Little
Scotty Peterson sells wars, keeps him in his Fruit of the Looms.

RT America: Currently Iraq is importing American weapons, supplies
and, you guessed it, private contractors to keep the developing al Qaeda
incursion at bay. If you're wondering, those contractors, many of them
anyway, used to be the same folks hired by the US Department of
Defense. According to the Wall Street Journal, about 5,000 contractors
are supporting the American diplomatic mission in Iraq -- more than a
third of those are Americans. Over the next few months, the US
government is expected to begin sending more than $6 billion dollars and
military equipment to Iraq. The latest deal includes 24 Apache Attack
Helicopters made by Boeing and nearly 500 Hellfire missiles produced by
Lockheed Martin. And these people and supplies may be bridging the gap
until Iraq has a self-sufficient force to run its country. But then
again, it might not. It might just keep them needing foreign talent to
stay afloat for decades. To discuss the reliance on contractors in
Iraq, I was joined earlier by retired Brig Gen David Reist. He's the
Vice President at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Strategy and
Planning Division. [. . .] Now that the war is official over and
thousands of contractors supporting the American mission remain and
those supporting the defense contractors who are sending their product
over, you need people to guard those Apache helicopters when they get
there -- all those sorts of things. What are many of these contractors'
roles in the country now who aren't with the diplomatic mission? We're
talking about essentially defense contractors, right?David Reist: We're talking about contractors that whoever won that contract that was offered by the Iraqi [government] --RT America: [Laughing] Yeah, yeah.David Reist: Whether the war is over? That's debatable also because
I would not say it is and many Iraqi people would not say. But whoever
wins those contracts and those are competitively bid and when I was
there in Anbar Province, the Governor offered contracts out to whoever
won it. So, there's other countries that are providing a good amount of
support and other countries that are reaping much of the benefits of
the economic wealth of Iraq at this point in time. RT America: Okay, that's fair enough. A lot of foreign countries are making quite a bit of good money on David Reist: That's the essence of capitalism RT America: Right. Exactly. So is it not -- some would argue that
the contracting, it's not going through the Department of Defense
anymore but people are still making good money on Iraq not being able to
prop itself up fully.David Reist: Uh --RT America: Could that have perhaps been part of the formulation of
going to Iraq? It doesn't turn out okay but, hey, at least someone's
making money.David Reist: I wouldn't go there as the stretch. Where I would go
is Iraq has to sit here at this point and time and they've got to find
those capabilities that they can't -- that they can't provide themselves
at this point in time.

David Reist is correct, the war hasn't ended. Not by a long shot.

And US President Barack Obama got more blood splashed on his hands today
as his rabid dog Nouri al-Maliki continued terrorizing and killing
Iraqis. Nouri continues attacking
civilians in Falluja. Anadolu Agency reports, "At least eight civilians were killed and 16 others injured in Iraqi army
shelling of Fallujah in the western Anbar province, a medical official
said." AndNINA notes
today, two civilians were wounded from Nouri's continued bombings of
residential neighborhoods in Falluja. The whorish Center of American
Progress and the always war-whoring Time magazine are trumpeting 'no
deaths in Iraq or Afghanistan' for the month of March but what they
really mean is no US deaths. Considering that both wars were sold on
the lie that they would improve the lives of the people in those
countries, the deaths or non-deaths of US 'peacekeepers' really aren't
the issue. But it's the whoring we've come to expect from those who pimp
war.

Grasp that their countries get invaded with the lie that it will make
their lives better and 13 years later for Afghanistan, 11 for Iraq, the
people are dying in large numbers still and you think you look anything
less than self-involved as you trumpet "No deaths!"

It's not just the US military failed to win hears and minds, it's also
the stupid American press who don't stop to think how they're 'whoops of
joy' play out around the world.

Yes, campaigning kicked off today and to ensure that the corruption could take hold, broken promises were not called out. Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports, "If the fighting goes on, Iraqi military officials say it would be
impossible to hold elections inside the city of Fallujah, west of
Baghdad, which has been taken over by the militants — but they hint the
vote could perhaps be held on the city's outskirts. As many as a third
of the province's cities might be affected, election officials say." AFP words it,
"Though
not officially confirmed, the vote appears unlikely to take place
throughout parts of the western desert province of Anbar, which has been
wracked by violence since the beginning of the year, with militants
holding control of an entire town on Baghdad’s doorstep." The US State
Dept, once so adamant that elections must take place everywhere in Iraq,
was silent on the news.

Let's all go to the movies! World Can't Wait
does great work and we supported it here -- up until they decided to
protest a film that they admitted they hadn't seen. A film by Kathryn
Bigelow, who I've noted before, I've known for years.. (And there's a
long story on the journalist involved in smearing the film, Dexy
Filkins. He lied about Falluja, he lied about the film. But that's a
story for another day.)

Zero Dark Thirty is a great film. But even if it were a piece of
crap, you don't bully the arts. You can choose not to see a film all
you want. I had and have no interest in Mel Gibson's Jesus movie. I
didn't scream it shouldn't be shown, I didn't try to think of ways Mel
should be forced to alter his film. It's not a film that held interest
for me so I avoided it.

I think Debra Sweet (of World Can't Wait) is one of the strongest and most important activists in the United States.

But I still struggle with noting her organization, World Can't Wait, to
this day because that's not minor. I don't believe in bullying an
artist and I don't believe in censorship. But I especially don't
believe in calling for censorship of a film you haven't seen yet.

Ashe Schow's Washington Examiner article on the documentary Honor Diaries
was sent to the public account. I haven't seen the film, I won't see
it. That's not me telling anyone not to see it or saying that it has no
value. I'm just not in place where I can sit down and watch a
documentary about women being killed for so-called 'honor' crimes. It's
an important topic and I can read about it, I can speak about it and I
can hear about it -- we have frequently written about it here -- but I'm
not going to sit there and watch a movie about it. I'm not in a place
where I can.

Since they don't have a statement proper, we have to go the conservative newspaper The Jewish Press:It is hard even for an organization such as CAIR to publicly defend
the abuse of women that is described in the film. Instead, CAIR vilifies
the Clarion Project, which produced the film, because “Jews produced
the film,” as CAIR explained in a letter to Fox News, which ran a
segment about the film.Clarion produced other films which deal with unsavory aspects of
Muslim culture. Those films, “Obsession,” “Relentless” and “Iranium,”
were similarly criticized by certain defenders of the Muslim faith,
although all included interviews with people widely considered to be
“moderate Muslims,” such as the Arab Israeli journalist Khaled abu
Toameh, and the American Muslim physician Zuhdi Jasser.

Okay, what do you say about that?

How about I hope that the argument that "Jews produced the film" wasn't
really made by CAIR but if it was they need to apologize publicly
immediately. But they appear to be concerned by what they see as a
pattern of Islamophobia. Then make your case for that. I called out DW
Griffith's Birth of a Nation decades ago in college. At the
time, professors -- predominately White -- didn't want to hear that. I
didn't give a damn about their sacred cows.

Today, there's little dispute of how racist that film is. When that film came out in 1915? The NAACP
protested it. They got the message out -- a message most didn't want
to hear at the time -- but they got the message out and laid the
groundwork for the criticism of the racist nature of the film.

I'm going to be really honest here, most people are too uninformed to 'read' film.

They lack the critical abilities because they weren't taught them.

Django Unchained is a racist film from a talented half-wit whose
works grows worse and worse with each film because he's an uneducated
idiot who, when blessed with success, failed to use that good fortune to
educate himself. So his already cartoonish and limited view of the
world just gets more cartoonish.

One of the most embarrassing moments in Jane Fonda's life is her ridiculous praise for Django Unchained. Ann called it out here, Betty called it out here.
But, like I said, some people can't 'read' film. That's why Jane
Fonda can give incredible performances but mostly in so-so movies. Faye
Dunaway has the filmography. Faye will be remembered because she gave
strong performances and chose well. Jane has no Chinatown, no Bonnie & Clyde and no Three Days of the Condor (Jane turned down the first two). On Diane Rehm this week, she was asked about . . . Barefoot in the Park.
By a caller -- the only film mentioned, which really says something
about the way the public sees her body of work -- and Jane said it holds
up. Really?

Mildred Natwick tells Jane to "give up a little bit of you." And save
the 'games' (Corey Bratter's actual life but, sure, call it 'games') for
bed.

Jane thinks that holds up?

Hmm.

As I said, some people lack the critical abilities to 'read' film and that includes Jane.

Anyone who knows how to 'read' film grasps quickly that the Fatal Attraction Glenn Close 'bitch' in Django Unchained, the character the audience screams to be dead? Samuel L. Jackson's house slave character.

I'm sorry, the real villains in the issue of slavery were house slaves?

That's nothing but bulls**t. In a film overflowing with White actors,
the villain is the only other significant Black character? Samuel L.
Jackson's characters buys no slaves and owns no slaves, but he's the one
Quentin sets audiences up to boo and hiss. Jonah Hill, by contrast, is
a KKK member who we're supposed to find amusing and chuckle with
because, after all, the KKK is so cuddly and cute, right?

Again, Jane Fonda embarrassed herself.

I didn't demand that Django Unchained not open or that it be
pulled from theaters. I've called it out for being racist -- and I know
damn well in 20 years that will be the accepted view.

I like Jane. But I loathe Django Unchained.

And I bring that all up to point out that if you don't like a film,
speak out. But you don't have a right -- I don't have a right -- to
demand that a director have his or her film recut. You had three US
Senators demanding changes -- demanding in writing -- to Kathryn's film
and few bothered to call out this attempt at government censorship of a
film. From Ava and my "Media: The never-ending sexism:"The sexism never ends. Like when Senators Dianne Feinstein, John McCain
and Carl Levin embarrassed themselves with the letter calling for
censorship -- yes, government officials insisting on altering a film
from the director's intended version qualifies as censorship -- whether
it's the insertion of a title card or a call for deletions.That cry for censorship was shameful. And they've backed off that call.
In part because former CIA Director and the outgoing Secretary of
Defense Leon Panetta has praised the film as has former US House Rep.
Jane Harman. But also because it was made clear that a line had been
crossed.With that checked off the list, let's return to the three senators and their little letter calling for censorship to note the sexist aspect of it.Zero Dark Thirty is a film released by Sony Pictures. The
senators complain to "Chairman and CEO Sony Pictures Entertainment"
Michael Lynton. That position actually has a co-chair. Amy Pascal is
the Co-Chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment and the Chair of Sony
Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group. How telling that the
Senate -- where sexism is institutionalized -- would blow off Pascal and
make their appeal to Lynton. Or did it just not occur to them that a woman could be in charge?

If Honor Diaries is an awful film, call it out. But don't try to
prevent it from being shown. It being shown can raise awareness and
also raise funds for CARE, among other things. But it being shown also
means a dialogue and without that dialogue Islamophobia isn't brought
out in the open and won't be defeated.

Honor Diaries may not be an awful film. It's chief critic is a
man who hasn't seen the film. Don't you just love that? He's decided
no one should see it and that includes him. The uninformed as a shaper
of culture? Maybe he should run for Congress.

No one benefits from censorship. Birth of a Nation is still
shown today but most Americans today rightly see it for the racist film
it is. That's the victory. The film is called out and it exists now as
evidence and proof of just how racist the society was (and DW as well)
to make a film glorifying the KKK.

'Honor' killings take place all the time. We cover Iraq, they take
place in Iraq all the time and go unpunished. They also take place in
the United States all the time as well. Among all racial and ethnic
and religious (and non-religious) groups in the US. A woman divorces a
man and he shows up later to kill her. 'Honor' killings are about those
who see women as having no agency, they are 'things' and then these
'things' embarrass someone -- a husband or ex-husband, a lover or
ex-lover, a parent (including a mother), etc. -- it's time to kill the
woman.

A real dialogue around Honor Diaries could go along way towards addressing how this is not a religious issue but it is an issue about the status of women.